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Quirky indie MMOFPS Hunternet boasts 700-player battles
Indie developer Fernando Zapata of CPU Dreams is taking on a subgenre not often challenged by indies, the MMOFPS, but he doesn't seem daunted. In fact, his fledgling MMOFPS, Hunternet, can already handle 700 players on a map, more than PlanetSide 2 -- more "any other MMOFPS." The video below includes footage from a Hunternet network stress test, with "700 clients spread across the cloud connected to a single dedicated server," a server where "players are not limited in their interaction by network culling as done in other large scale MMOs that spread out players and limit when you can see other players." After two years in development, the game is in alpha, so placeholder art is seen throughout the tech demo video and screenshots. Zapata says he's revisited and rethought many genre tropes, like "controls, health, scoring, shooting, spawning, teamwork," along with more "mundane" bits like a scaling UI and integrated voice chat. The website welcomes tester signups from gamers who "embrace failure as an integral part of learning" and "value mechanics over aesthetics." Skip the signup, says the dev, if you think shooters must be ultra-realistic "big macho war fests." Check out the alpha assets below, and notice we didn't use the word Kickstarter.
A tour of WildStar's upcoming Black Focus area
The next update for WildStar has some pretty big shoes to fill. Arriving on November 11th, it's the first update the game has seen since August, when the game abruptly peeled back from monthly updates to quarterly ones. It comes after a round of server merges. It needs to prove to fans who are still subscribed to the game that there's good reason to keep playing and that more content is on the way in the near future -- that there's a reason to hold out hope. Earlier this week, I toured the Black Focus, the five-person group content releasing in the new region of The Defile in the upcoming patch. Not all of my questions about the zone as a whole were answered since I didn't get to go through all of the quests leading into this particular encounter. However, I did get a chance to form at least some first impressions and see how well this bit of content holds up. And there's a new trailer past the cut if you just want to watch that.
League of Legends spotlights Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance
Yesterday, Riot Games formally unveiled the long-rumored Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, a new champion coming to MOBA League of Legends. Says the studio, Kalista is a marksman who cooperates with her Soul-Bound to deal substantial sustained damage, access her full repertoire of abilities and wither her enemies under her relentless assault. Kalista’s potential is unlocked by solid communication and cooperation with allies rather than raw mechanical skill. While still capable in her own right, Kalista misses out on Soul-Marked's bonus damage and effective use of her ult without direct cooperation from her ally. Riot has a brief unembeddable spotlight clip on the official site; we've included a longer one from YouTuber SkinSpotlights below.
WildStar shows off the Mystery of the Genesis Prime
The nature of the Genesis Prime is one of the major elements of WildStar's story as presented to players on the road to level 50. Even once you get there, though, you still have questions, ones that will hopefully be answered by the end of the game's next update. Lucky for you, a new trailer for the Mystery of the Genesis Prime update is now available, along with a look at the Defile region that should help bring much of this storytelling to a conclusion for the time being. Inside the Defile, players will be exploring solo content in the Sonic Plaza and the Strain Maw, taking on five-person tasks in the Black Focus, and fighting through large-group challenges with the Siege of the Lightspire. Carbine intends to have content in place for you no matter what your preference is. The update was originally scheduled to launch in November, but no formal date has been announced. Check out the trailer past the break, scope out the locations available, and get ready to find some answers to one of the game's biggest mysteries. [Source: Carbine Studios press release]
Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade announces $15 pioneer founder packs
Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade has just announced a new founder pack option, the pioneer pack. Pre-order founder packs running from $40 to $450 went live last June, but the newly announced pioneer packs cost only $15. They're aimed squarely at gamers "who want to contribute to the founder's program [...] without as much of an investment," says Behaviour Online's Miguel Caron. The game's planned hybrid model will restrict free-to-play gamers to the Ork Boyz faction. Pioneer packs "extend the Ork experience" with perks including an Ork-only character slot, 15,000 RTP, badges, gear, and the opportunity to pay for access to the game module planned for early 2015.
SMITE reveals Nox, Goddess of the Night, just in time for Halloween
Nox, Goddess of the Night, will soon debut in MOBA SMITE, Hi-Rez has announced. Based on the classical goddess of the same name, playable Nox is both beautiful and terrifying, a shadowy figure rarely seen, who "glides between the light just at the edge of vision." Her core mechanics revolve around the clever implementation of candles and candlelight; abilities used near Nox light up the candles she wields, reducing her mana consumption. Other powers include a mitigation shield, a damage-plus-silence raven attack, and multiple darkness-themed debuffs. Check out Nox's god reveal trailer below! [Thanks, Sorenthaz.]
Elite: Dangerous' third beta is now live with new systems, ships, and interdiction mechanics
After a brief technical delay, Elite: Dangerous' "Beta 3.00 is now available," declares a post on the official Frontier forums. The patch notes are extra long; new and updated features include new ships, player-driven interdiction, fuel scooping from stars, asteroid mining, visual overhauls to planets, philanthropy missions, and an expanded game map with now over 2400 systems. Frontier has also added hundreds of audio tweaks and bug fixes. Players have continued reporting stability issues with the new patch. This episode of beta, like the phases before it, is exclusive to those who've pre-purchased the game and beta access. Massively's Mike Foster spent September playing the game in beta 1 and had enough fun to say that he "would happily recommend it" but for the beta price tag. We've included the new beta 3 trailer below.
Valiance Online launches its Kickstarter today [Updated: It's live now!]
A post on Valiance Online's Facebook has good news for fans of the upcoming game: SilverHelm Studios will be bringing the game to Kickstarter today. "It's packed with all manner of goodies for you to get your hands on," Design Director Nate "Paramount" Vogeding writes. "These things will be exclusive to our KS backers and backers alone. That's right; it won't be coming back around again." Vogeding also promises more pre-alpha invites and tells readers to "let everyone know that yes, there is a city coming back and very soon!" Valiance Online is one of several fan-backed superhero MMOs vying to become City of Heroes' spiritual successor. In September, SilverHelm told followers that it will not be licensing the CoH IP if it is eventually secured from NCsoft by City of Titans. [Update: The Kickstarter is now live, with pledges ranging from $1-$10,000 and a funding goal of $150,000. We've embedded the trailer below.]
Neverwinter: Rise of Tiamat coming November 18th
Neverwinter has been building to an epic showdown with its "season of dragons" storyline, and now with the advent of the game's fifth free module, it looks as though the final battle is about to begin. Rise of Tiamat will release on November 18th with an all-new series of quests and dungeons. Players will find out that the Cult of the Dragon is trying to bring back the titular five-headed goddess and destroy the town of Neverwinter. Naturally, the characters cannot let that happen. We've got the quick story trailer for Rise of Tiamat after the break, so give it a watch and prepare your hearts and souls for this conflict. [Source: Cryptic press release]
New King of Wushu video showcases graphics, awesome hair
Snail Games wants you to know that its MOBA, King of Wushu, is not some chucked-together, low-poly, button-mashing spectacle -- it's a Cryengine 3 game with style. It's got Dynamic Flowing Hair and Cloth, people. At last week's Nvidia Game Festival, the developer revealed a new trailer to show off its graphics, and we think you'll agree that the character's lush mane is totally dynamic and flowing. And hey, the martial arts play is pretty spiffy too. Revealed last June, King of Wushu is based on Snail's MMORPG Age of Wushu. The MOBA is destined for a 2015 launch. Check out the video below.
Guild Wars 2's Echoes of the Past begins next week
ArenaNet has just posted a new trailer for the next installment of Guild Wars 2's living story, Echoes of the Past, which launches on November 4th. "Echoes of the Past will pick up the story from the cliffhanger ending of episode 4 and follow the heroes of Tyria as they continue down the road to war against the Elder Dragon Mordremoth," says the studio. The second season of the game's living story has been on hiatus since the beginning of September. Last week, Massively GW2 columnist Anatoli Ingram spoke with ArenaNet's Bobby Stein and Steven Waller about this season's living story plotline. Toli's recap of the ongoing Halloween event and gem shop controversy, as well as his own predictions for the living story, went live earlier this afternoon. Enjoy the video below, and tell me if I'm crazy in thinking the music track is tipping its hat to Revenge of the Sith.
Go behind the scenes on a Bless cinematic
Remember Bless? It's been a while since we've heard from the Korean fantasy import, but today we learned of a new video that takes you behind the scenes for the making of a cinematic as well as a 1,000-player focus group test slated for the Korean market on November 6th. MMO Culture reports that Bless features "an epic storyline and conflicts between various factions and races which will lead to massive PvP battles." You can view the trailer after the cut.
Fully crossplatform LEGO Minifigures Online is coming to the Kindle Fire HDX
Funcom has today announced a partnership with Amazon that will put LEGO Minifigures Online on Amazon Fire TV as well as the Kindle Fire HDX line of tablets. Says the studio, Working with Amazon on this project includes support for the Fire TV game controller as well as Amazon's store and payment systems. Fire TV is currently widely available in North America and Germany, and is launching in the United Kingdom in November 2014. LEGO Minifigures Online is scheduled to go live on Fire TV at the end of 2014. Funcom will also be bringing LEGO Minifigures Online to the HDX line of Fire tablets. The game will be optimized for these devices and will fully support Amazon's store and payment systems for these devices. This version of LEGO Minifigures Online is set to go live at the end of Q1 2015. Of note, Funcom promises that the family-friendly MMO will feature full cross-platform play across "Windows PC, Mac, iOS tablets, Android tablets, Fire TV and Fire tablets," making it one of the few MMOs playable on pretty much everything with the possible exception of your toaster. We've included the game's recent Space World trailer below.
Space strategy title AD2460 jumps into open beta
The stars and beyond are the limit for AD2460, a new science-fiction strategy MMO that just went into open beta this past week. AD2460 places players in charge of a homeworld and space-faring fleets in an effort to research technology, conquer worlds, and form alliances. This so-called "WMMO" ("W" stands for "web-based") is playable in a PC browser as well as on tablets and capable smartphones. While developer Fifth Season welcomes any and all players into the open beta, it urged participants to log bug reports to help the title become more polished. When it goes live, AD2460 will offer a 14-day trial followed by a subscription model of $1 a week. AD2460 is the spiritual successor to Fifth Season's Planetarion, and if you're interested, you can check out the story trailer after the break.
World of Warcraft commercials are raiding your TV
Blizzard is ramping up its Warlords of Draenor hype with a new series of World of Warcraft commercials aimed squarely at television viewers. The brief clips -- Grommash Death Stare, Bond of Iron, Iron Horde, and Conquerors -- evoke more Lord of the Rings than the WoW we all know. No gameplay is shown, though there's a sliver of an in-game level-up animation for a human. Spoiler: lots of orcs! Anyone see any of these on TV yet? Enjoy all four commercials below.
World of Warcraft gives behind-the-scenes tour of animated series
Blizzard has been paving the way for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor with its recent animated miniseries, Lords of War. If you found that series particularly, erm, enThralling, then the devs have a treat for you. The team posted two behind-the-scenes videos talking about the story and art of the series, respectively, which you can watch after the jump!
TERA announces Fate of Arun expansion
En Masse Entertainment has just announced Fate of Arun, the first-ever expansion coming to action-MMO TERA. And at least on paper, it actually looks like a classic MMO expansion, too, complete with a level cap bump and new zones. The mysterious continent of Northern Arun is finally open – and it's under siege by a soul-sucking bloodmage army. In Fate of Arun, players will explore this lost world, discover the home city of the Barakan race, fight for the freedom of the native Khirians, and take on a powerful new evil. Fate of Arun represents the first and biggest expansion for TERA to date, featuring a new level cap of 65 and the lands of Northern Arun to explore through a brand-new storyline, new quests, zones, dungeons, skills, gear and a new PvP battleground, in addition to vast systematic improvements to the gameplay experience. Producer Patrick Sun declates that "Fate of Arun will be, without a doubt, the biggest addition to the world of TERA new and returning players have ever seen." A launch date has not yet been confirmed. Enjoy the teaser pics and video below.
Warframe welcomes space ninjas, passes 12M registered players
It is hard to beat around the bush on this one, so we are going to be blunt: Yes, Virginia, there are space ninjas. And yes, they're going to be arriving in Warframe whether or not you are prepared for them. Tomorrow, the sci-fi MMO will be releasing its 15th update, Archwing. The update will include the ability for players to fly characters through space as space ninjas (because why not?), using new weapons and fighting previously unknown enemies. Archwing will also add the Limbo warframe and a reputation system for added depth. Digital Extremes claims that Warframe has accumulated over 12 million registered players and is the most downloaded PlayStation 4 game. You can watch the Archwing trailer after the jump. [Source: Digital Extremes press release]
Infinite Crisis reveals creepy alien starfish Starro
Crowd-control fans, listen up: Turbine MOBA Infinite Crisis has today announced Starro, a new playable controller champion going live on November 5th. For those not up on their DC lore, the short version is "creepy alien starfish." Long version? Starro is a Star Conqueror. These nomadic and parasitic creatures roam the cosmos in two forms: motherstars and parasites. Motherstars are sentient, while parasites are extensions of the motherstar's consciousness. A parasite attaches itself to other sentient creatures, allowing the motherstar to control that creature's mind. Once controlled, the victims work toward growing more motherstars to go out and bring universal harmony to other planets-by conquering them. Little did the Star Conqueror who came to be known as Starro know how difficult carrying that plan out on Earth would be! Starro has little concern for what happens to the individuals it controls. They're a tiny part of the whole. When Starro speaks to creatures it doesn't control, it does so telepathically, urging them to join in universal harmony. We've got some pics and a video below to finish out Starro's reveal.
Guns of Icarus Online overhauls progression and matching
The latest patch for Guns of Icarus Online is going to make it a great deal easier for characters to get better. The game's progression system has been completely overhauled, with level now tied to experience earned via matches rather than to achievements. This is accompanied by a reorganization of stats and traits and a bump in the level cap to 45, which will also bump existing characters and give them more levels to play around with. Said patch also improves the game's matchmaking system, which helps get players into the action more quickly while also providing a more balanced system for everyone. A new tutorial to introduce new players to the game and a spectator system that makes it easier to watch games unfold have also been added, giving players new and old alike plenty to enjoy. Check out the full patch notes or just steal a glance at the video showing off these new features past the break.
